Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Home or Away

Classes are really wrapping up; I have two and a half weeks left, then exams. I try to focus, but the weather is beautiful out, and sometimes I daydream of home…

I found myself thinking of soft-serve ice cream, Dad’s homemade pizza, driving through downtown, lilacs, green grass and mountains. I look forward to spending days at the lake with my siblings, organic vegetables, and running around the house with my dog. I am very excited to return home.

At the same time, I look around myself and realize how much I will leave behind. The off-white stone buildings, ivy on the church, street lights, the night-lit ponts, open cafés and brasseries, des boulangeries et des patisseries, the French flag waving against the blue sky…

Being surrounded by a new culture is fascinating, and there are days when I feel so much a part of it. Greeting friends with bisous, taking the métro, shopping at the Sunday market, and feeling much more like a resident when comparing myself to the tourists while strolling along the quais and around the Louvre.

However, this experience is only adding a new chapter to who I am. I feel that I will always view the world differently after having lived abroad, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity. I will no doubt feel a change when I return to the U.S., having experienced something different. But I am altogether American, and no matter how accustomed to Paris I have become, I wholly feel that that the states is where I feel most at home. Maybe someday I will expatriate to Europe in retirement, but I feel that is a long way away.

In the meantime, I will finish my classes, start packing in a few weeks for my return, and soak up as much sun as I can. It is with great joy that at times I remember, at home or away, it is the same sun.